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Cultural diversity
126
ACQ
Volume 13, Number 3 2011
ACQ
uiring Knowledge in Speech, Language and Hearing
Wendy Pearce
(top) and Emma
Stockings
This article
has been
peer-
reviewed
Keywords
ABORIGINAL
CHILDREN
CULTURAL AND
LINGUISTIC
DIVERSITY
DIAGNOSIS
LANGUAGE
DIFFERENCE
ORAL
NARRATIVE
Gulley-Faehnle, 2003). It enables speech pathologists
to adapt their interaction style to suit the child and avoid
cultural challenges that may be present in standardised
assessments. For example, in some Aboriginal communities
display questions (asking the child to tell the examiner what
the examiner already knows) are not a feature of traditional
communicative practices (Moses & Wigglesworth,
2008). Language sample analysis (LSA) methods enable
descriptive profiling of linguistic strengths and weaknesses
by comparing measures from the child’s sample to what is
known about typical development in the target population
(Price, Hendricks, & Cook, 2010; Westerveld, Gillon, &
Miller, 2004). Computerised LSA databases now make the
task of normative comparisons much easier because the
software will compute statistical comparisons between a
child’s language sample and normative data from other
children of the same age performing similar language
tasks (Price et al., 2010). Australian speech pathologists
are disadvantaged because existing normative data have
typically been derived from overseas populations such as
the US, UK, or NZ. While it is often assumed that English
language development is similar across Australia, the USA,
UK, and NZ, supportive evidence is scarce (see Westerveld,
2011). For example, a study of narrative retells from 39
Australian and 47 NZ children (5- and 6-years-old) found
higher grammatical accuracy measures for the NZ children
(Westerveld & Claessen, 2009).
One discourse of diagnostic importance is oral
narrative which acts as a vital medium for academic,
social, linguistic, and cultural learning. Oral narrative is a
universal cultural practice and an appropriate means for
describing language development in children from many
different cultures (Muñoz et al., 2003). Many narrative
assessment measures are sensitive to both language
development (Muñoz et al., 2003; Petersen, Gillam, &
Gillam, 2008) and impairment (Epstein & Phillips, 2009; Fey,
Catts, Proctor-Williams, Tomblin, & Zhang, 2004; Pearce,
James, & McCormack, 2010). Children’s oral narratives
are typically analysed at two levels, namely microstructure
and macrostructure, as difficulties may be evident at both
levels. Microstructure analyses primarily focus on children’s
linguistic form and content (Heilmann, Miller, Nockerts, &
Dunaway, 2010). Measures that reflect both productivity
and complexity include the number of communication units
(C-units; each independent clause and its dependents, and
phrasal or single word utterances), mean length of C-units
(MLCU), number of different words (NDW), and grammatical
This study investigated the characteristics of
oral narratives produced by six Aboriginal
children aged between 6;6 and 9;6 years in
North Queensland. Fictional narrative
retellings were analysed at microstructure
and macrostructure levels. Results were
compared to the narrative story retell
database included in the Systematic Analysis
of Language Transcripts software. Most
children gained lower results on measures of
narrative microstructure, such as mean
length of C-unit and number of different
words, but performed well on several
measures of narrative structure, namely the
Narrative Scoring Scheme (NSS) total score
and component scores for Introduction,
Character Development and Conclusion.
Older children performed within normal
limits, or better, on more NSS measures than
the younger children. Implications for the
development of appropriate assessment
measures for Aboriginal children are
discussed.
K
ey findings of the Australian Early Development
Index (AEDI), a national progress measure of early
childhood development, revealed that the majority
of Aboriginal children are developmentally on track in many
domains, but not language and cognitive skills (Centre for
Community Child Health and Telethon Institute for Child
Health Research, 2009). This is a concern for speech
pathologists who may be called on to assess children
with suspected language delays. Currently, assessments
used by Australian speech pathologists have not been
standardised for Aboriginal children. As a result, accurate
diagnosis of language impairment (LI) or differences
(LD) arising from cultural and linguistic factors is difficult
to achieve. Consequently, there is both an over- and
underrepresentation of these students in special education
(de Plevitz, 2006).
Language sampling is often the assessment method
of choice for children from culturally and linguistically
diverse (CLD) backgrounds (Munoz, Gillam, Peña, &
Oral narratives
produced by Aboriginal
Australian children:
Dilemmas with normative comparisons
Wendy Pearce and Emma Stockings